ABSTRACT
SUMMARY. Sample retention is a potentially serious problem in panel studies of drug use that include minority respondents. Minority respondents may be more difficult to retain primarily because their disadvantaged economic status makes tracking and contacting them more difficult. It is suggested that with standard techniques of tracking applied aggressively, high retention rates can be obtained for these respondents. This paper describes strategies that are used in an ongoing panel study of drug use among primarily African American and Puerto Rican respondents and evaluates how effective these strategies have been. Over an eight year period involving ten waves of data collection, 86 percent of the initial 1000 adolescents have 186been retained. Among adolescents, there is little difference in attrition by racial/ethnic status. However, among the parents, Puerto Rican respondents have somewhat lower retention rates than white or African American respondents. Reasons for the attrition of the Puerto Rican parents are discussed. Comparisons of drug use and delinquency at Wave 1 between respondents who remained in the study at Wave 10 and those who did not are not statistically different. Correlations between risk factors and drug use and delinquency computed for those respondents who are retained compared with correlations for the total panel are also not substantially different. The findings suggest that given sufficient resources and aggressive implementation of retention strategies, a high retention rate evidencing no significant selection bias can be obtained. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: getinfo@haworthpressinc.com]
